He was one of the greatest of the greats from the Golden Age of cinematographers as painters, the American Sven Nyqvist or Vittorio Storarro.

Gordon Willis shot gorgeous looking Westerns (“Bad Company”), stunning mob epics (“The Godfather”) and the loveliest black and white and color comedies ever put on film (Woody Allen, from “Manhattan” through “The Purple Rose of Cairo”).

I’d make the case that one reason Allen is still taken so seriously as an artist himself was the handiwork of Gordon Willis, who died this weekend at 83.

But his “Pennies from Heaven” gorgeously evoked The Great Depression, his “September 30, 1955” beautifully captured the texture of rural America at the birth of teen culture (on the day James Dean died).

One of the great ones.